Help With Every Child Matters Question

[Guest]

Hi, I've been studying L3 Diploma for Children and Young People and am stuck on a couple of questions to do with ECM -

 

Why is it important to design services around the needs of children and young people?

Why is it important for children and young people to participate actively in decisions affecting their lives?

 

 

Been pondering over these questions all day and feeling a little dim can anyone help please?

 

Thanks

[Guest]

I have cut and paste some paragraphs from essays I have written, hope they help!!

 

The ECM toolkit, cited in DCFS.gov.uk, supports and guides leadership roles within the team, thereby narrowing the gap, it not only states the case for knowledge and skills, but also the necessary step of maintaining a work load that is manageable.

 

The Children’s Act (2004) cited in Anning Et Al (2006) responds to the need for local authority to establish an officer to take responsibility for children’s services within their locale, including the development of services to enable access by families with children up to and including secondary age. The focus being to provide a ‘one stop shop’ for agencies to deliver to families the level of support needed to meet their needs. Taking into account the ECM Green Paper and the five outcomes listed therein. Schaub and Altimier (2006) cited in Fitzgerald and Kay (2008) clearly defines trust as an essential ingredient to inter agency collaboration, this is supported by OFSTED reports that show good management and leadership is followed by high standards of care.

 

Children’s rights and responsibilities are laid out in The United Nations Rights of the Child (1991) cited in www.UNICEF.org.uk advocates in articles with suggestions on how to empower children, article 12 particularly pertains to allowing children a voice in decisions that affect them and to have their voice listened to and acted upon. Ways of empowering children within the play space is to support their input into equipment choice, suggestion boxes, graffiti wall thereby supporting play leaders to meet the needs of the children in their care.

[Guest]

Why is it important to design services around the needs of children and young people?

Why is it important for children and young people to participate actively in decisions affecting their lives?

 

Been pondering over these questions all day and feeling a little dim can anyone help please?

 

On a practical level:

 

Important to design services around needs because it makes best use of the money we have, it targets the services properly, so doesn't waste time or resources. Putting the child at the centre means, rather than it being about adults and what they want, it is actually about what the child NEEDS.

 

Important for them to participate actively because that way they feel (awful phrase) 'ownership', i.e. if they feel they 'own it', they are more likely to respond to it and use it.

 

Also, it's just basic common sense that they should decide - they know what they need (mostly) after all.